My Fiancé Cheated with My Best Friend, So I Married a Stranger

I have face blindness. I can't remember faces. My best friend Bianca and my fiancé Derek both loved messing with me because of it. At an alumni party, Derek had a bunch of guys wear the same tuxedo as him and made me guess which one he was. At the mall, they'd slip into fitting rooms when I wasn't looking, swap outfits with strangers, and make me find them again. Every time, I'd end up standing there helpless, crying and begging them to stop. Then, on the morning of the wedding, Derek brought in six men wearing tuxedos identical to his and told me to pick the real groom. This time, I didn't cry. I simply walked up and placed my hand on one of them. They all looked the same to me anyway. Derek or someone else—it didn't really matter. I walked a full circle around the six men. Then I stopped where I'd started. And placed my hand in the palm of the man closest to me. Bianca, standing nearby in her bridesmaid dress, let out a breath so faint I almost missed it. Relief—like their plan was already half in the bag. The night before the wedding, I woke up around midnight and went to the kitchen for water. That was when I overheard my parents, Derek, and Bianca having a little "family meeting" in the living room. They weren't planning a surprise for me. They were planning to use my wedding to give Bianca—the one who'd sworn off marriage and kids—the dream wedding she'd never have. My mom, Margaret, who runs everything in our house, spoke first. "Clara's face-blind anyway. She won't notice a thing." "We can find a stand-in groom with a build similar to Derek's to go through the ceremony." My dad, Robert, filled in the details. "Clara's suspicious by nature, so let her pick the groom herself—it makes it look like her choice." "If she picks wrong, we'll say she couldn't even recognize her own husband." Derek made the final call. "We'll run both ceremonies at the same time. Afterwards, I'll say I need to use the restroom, swap back, and go with Clara to City Hall to sign the papers." "As long as the groomsmen keep their mouths shut, Clara won't know a thing." Bianca had only one question. "What if she picks the right one?" Derek actually took that seriously. To make absolutely sure, he had me pick from six groomsmen—but he wasn't even one of them. And yet now Bianca was standing there, lying through her teeth: "Beautiful weather today—perfect for a wedding." "Clara got so lucky—she actually found Derek on the first try!" I smiled and rubbed my thumb over the hand I was holding. His palm was wider than Derek's. Rougher, too. I may be face blind, but I'm not stupid. Still, I didn't call them out. I just squeezed this fake groom's palm and smiled. "What are you standing there for? Carry me out." He froze for half a second, then bent down and lifted me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck, rested against his chest, and waved goodbye to Bianca over his shoulder. "We'll head out first. You can follow behind." Derek came back from the bathroom just in time to see me leaving in someone else's arms. He reached out instinctively, like he wanted to pull me down, but Bianca grabbed his shoulder and held him in place. "Don't forget what we planned last night." Derek pulled his hand back, his voice dropping low. "The plan didn't say the groom was supposed to carry her out!" Bianca let go, her face pale and tight. "Then go after her. Stop her yourself." "Tell her straight out how awful your best friend is." "How I not only stole her groom for my own selfish reasons, but also made her marry a stranger." Derek let out a helpless sigh and wiped her tears with his thumb. "That's not what I meant." My mom jumped in to smooth things over. "Alright, alright. You two are fighting over something this small." My dad chuckled and clapped Derek on the shoulder. "Margaret and I treat Bianca like our own daughter." "She's the bride today. You don't make her cry." "Now, if we leave now, we can still make it to Bianca's wedding on time."